Melissa Cruz
Melissa Cruz is the Communications Associate at the American Immigration Council. She oversees media relations and content creation for ImmigrationImpact.com, the Council’s daily online publication. Previously, she worked as a political reporter for RealClearPolitics and Bustle, as well as a writer for the Human Rights Campaign. Melissa received her B.A. in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Georgia State University.
There is no doubt that a thoughtful conversation needs to be had around border security. However, it must be grounded in the realities of who is actually arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico, the reasons they are coming, and what the most pragmatic and humane response to them is. In the past several years, […]
In 2018 alone, the Center for Disease Control has been called to investigate 24 instances of foodborne disease outbreaks, marking the highest number of investigations since 2006. These recent outbreaks have tainted much of the United States’ food supply, from salad to beef to everyday breakfast cereal. Some experts have pointed to the Trump administration’s […]
Thousands of migrant children are currently being held at a tent city in Tornillo, Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. Most of the children traveled alone in order to flee from violence in their Central American home countries and to reunite with family members already in the United States. An investigation released this week by the […]
Another form of family separation is on the rise—the deportation of relatives with longstanding ties to the United States. Those left behind in the United States often face significant hardships, a new study from the Kino Border Initiative shows. Families can become impoverished, as relatives are unable to meet basic needs such as housing and […]
The United States Armed Forces has done some of its greatest work when it has dismantled barriers to service and opened its ranks to Americans of different backgrounds and identities. Inclusivity within the U.S. military has been hard-fought but admittedly slow. Black service members have fought in every single war since America’s founding, but were […]
Latino voters are more engaged in the 2018 midterm elections than in years past. Enthusiasm towards voting is higher and Latinos have already contributed to record turnout in some states. Yet this interest and excitement towards voting has the potential to be hampered in some areas facing voter suppression. These difficulties in voting are not […]
When people feel welcomed into a community, great things often happen that benefit the receiving community and even the nation. When newcomers feel accepted and included in a society, it provides them the best shot at harnessing talents they may have otherwise been unable to recognize or pursue. This has been the case year after […]
Thousands of migrants—many of whom are mothers, fathers, and children fleeing their homes in violence-stricken areas of Central America—are traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an impromptu caravan. A majority of the estimated 4,000 migrants left last week from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which has long ranked as one of the most violent […]
When government officials conducted a surprise inspection of the immigration detention center in Adelanto, California this May, they were met by many signs of serious neglect and abuse, including the chilling sight of nooses made from twisted bed sheets hanging in multiple cells. This abuse and neglect are highlighted in a new report by the […]
The Pentagon recently announced that up to 4,000 National Guard troops will remain deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border through September 2019, following a 12-month extension authorized by Defense Secretary James Mattis. But the nature of the military service members’ work at the border—which is mostly menial labor—will still cost millions. The original deployment order, set […]
